A sledgehammer to crack a nut was the expression that came to mind as Liverpool’s new £75m defender made his debut against a side with only one goal in their last four games and no shots on target in either of their last two home matches. Everton supporters were clinging to the slender hope that Jürgen Klopp might have taken a risk in throwing Virgil van Dijk straight into the heat of a Merseyside derby.
There were few worries on that score, even before the centre-half scored the winning goal five minutes from the end. Joël Matip and Van Dijk had only Dominic Calvert-Lewin to look after between them and the latter towered over the Everton centre-forward in every sense, invariably getting to the ball first whether in the air or on the ground. The former Southampton player even found time to launch a few attacks in the first half, sometimes Daryl Johnston Womens Jersey carrying the ball to the halfway line, sometimes sending out 50-yard passes in Brandon Sutter Authentic Jersey search of team-mates further forward.
Van Dijk looks the part, in short, but then he always did. It was in the other half of the pitch that Liverpool looked unusually disjointed until Everton came to their aid with a couple of defensive http://www.bearsonlinesprostore.com/DEVIN-HESTER-JERSEY-CHEAP.html blunders. First was a penalty as soft as the one that earned them a point in the league derby at Anfield last month. With only two of the Fab Four on the pitch Liverpool were making hard work of breaking through Everton’s two banks of defenders before Mason Holgate made his first misjudgment of the evening.
The defender made the error of laying his hands on Adam Lallana as the Liverpool forward attempted to turn on the ball just inside the area. There was no question of throwing him to the floor or ripping the shirt from his back but Lallana felt the contact and went to ground anyway. It was almost an exact replica of the challenge Dejan Lovren made on Calvert-Lewin for the penalty in the league game, and as Sam Allardyce fully backed that decision he could have no complaints here. “Don’t raise your hands, don’t touch the opponent, don’t mess with him” was the gist of Allardyce’s advice last month, so he probably needs to have a word with Holgate about keeping his hands to himself to avoid undoing half an hour’s worth of otherwise doughty defending.
Allardyce would have been reasonably pleased with that first half- hour too, because not only had Everton been keeping Liverpool at bay; they had won two corners to the home side’s none. There were no shots on target, needless to say, but as far as Allardyce is concerned corners are the next best thing. Everton must have been hoping to make it to the interval without conceding, to at least raise the tension levels, though in the event they were lucky to make it to half-time with a full complement of players on the pitch.
At first sight it seemed ludicrous that Holgate should make his second misjudgment of the evening by deliberately shoving Roberto Firmino over the perimeter fence into the crowd and get away with it, though the Everton player lost his head to such an extent that it appeared likely he had been verbally abused or provoked. There was no other explanation for such a blatant transgression under the nose of the referee, and the fact that Robert Madley failed to produce a card – not to mention the amount of time he spent talking to the fourth official and discussing the matter behind his hand with various interested parties on the pitch – suggested this was a http://www.officialcowboysnflstore....MENS_YOUTH_COLE_BEASLEY_JERSEY.html complex incident that even VAR might not have been able to clear up. Whatever the provocation, Holgate was lucky to get away with using his hands again so soon after conceding the penalty.
With Everton chasing Griffin Reinhart Womens Jersey the game in the second half Allardyce permitted Liverpool supporters their biggest cheer of the night by withdrawing Wayne Rooney well before the hour mark. Ademola Lookman was sent on in his place, but it is debatable whether Allardyce was trying to boost his attack. More likely he was protecting Rooney, who had picked up an early booking for a foul on Joe Gomez and had looked in danger of collecting a second when he clattered into Emre Can.
Nevertheless Lookman played his part in helping set up an unlikely equaliser, moving the ball neatly upfield to find Phil Jagielka, of all people, hovering close to the Liverpool penalty area, ready to lay off to Gylfi Sigurdsson. One shot on target, one goal. Set up by a substitute and a centre-half it may have been, but for just a few minutes it appeared Everton under Allardyce might have a charmed life in Merseyside derbies, especially after Lallana and Gomez wasted good chances to put the game to bed. Any Allardyce team has to be able to defend corners, however, and Everton were ultimately undone by a lapse of concentration almost as big as a £75m Dutchman. nike nfl jerseys from chinanba jerseys cheapnfl jerseys outletnfl jerseys authenticnfl jerseys wholesale

The day after the summer transfer market closed Barcelona’s sporting director, Albert Soler, and their director of football, Robert Fernández, ran through a PowerPoint presentation, specially prepared for the occasion. They sat in the press room at the Camp Nou but might as well have sat in the dock. As they talked their way through it, player by player, deal by deal, those that happened and those that did not, they sought to justify what some considered the unjustifiable. Barcelona were in crisis and they stood accused. The interrogation was intense, the explanation not always convincing.
Instead it was contradictory, as if they could not always get their story straight. More importantly they had not got their man. Neymar had left for Paris, barely a fortnight after the vice&#8209;president, Jordi Mestre, declared himself “200% sure” the Brazilian was staying and they had been unable to stop him. Womens Will Lutz Jersey In his place there was no sign of Philippe Coutinho, the man they had so publicly pursued. Everybody demanded that someone take responsibility for a Brandon Belt Youth jersey summer that most judged disastrous.
The €222m PSG had deposited in their account did not help. It might even have made matters worse and, Soler insisted, they would resist being drawn into wild spending – even if they did sign Ousmane Dembélé for €105m, rising to €145m. He and Fernández bemoaned an “inflated market” while the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, called for a limit on signings, describing the market as “mad”. Soler even claimed Liverpool had offered Coutinho “at the end” for €200m. “Logically,” he insisted, “we did not accept that.”
Some had called for resignations, a complete restructuring of a model in which eight different men had a say on signings – only for the signing that really mattered not to happen at all. “There will be no resignations,” Soler said. “We could Jeff Skinner Youth jersey have signed two players for €270m – and we could have – but then we would have to resign for being irresponsible. We’re not going to be drawn into that game.”
Four months on they have been drawn into exactly that. Dembélé could cost €145m, Coutinho €160m. Counting only easily achievable add-ons, that sack-inducing €270m outlay will surely be reached. But no one is seriously calling for sackings now and the pressure on the president has receded. Instead there is excitement at this signing, a belief that it strengthens Barcelona enormously. And, even as the price rose, even as Barcelona unexpectedly reached this market eight points clear at the top, 14 ahead of Real Madrid, the determination to sign Coutinho remained.
That is not to say there have not been doubts and debate. One high-ranking board member wondered whether it was financially responsible to commit to such an expensive signing and asked Malik McDowell Jersey what impact it might have on other players within the squad. Even after the deal was done, even with the satisfaction of the signing finally complete, another of those involved privately expressed his belief the fee http://www.atlantafalconsauthorizedstore.com/deion-jones-jersey-elite was too much.
That may, as José Mourinho and Jürgen Klopp have said, simply be an inescapable reality: either you pay that or you do not have the player. And Barcelona were determined to have this player, a fundamental, strategic piece.
At 25 his role is part of a longer&#8209;term project, part of the error is seeing him through the prism of Neymar’s departure. That is where Dembélé comes in – even if, because of injury, he is only just coming in now. As for Coutinho, he can play in a front three and Neymar’s departure may have made the need to sign him feel more pressing, especially amidst summer fears, but more significant is the need to replace Andrés Iniesta, who is 33 (Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi are both older than 30 as well), to find someone who can help secure some continuity in http://www.authentickingstore.com/marian-gaborik-jersey_c-460.html the model, the idea.
“Coutinho has a Barcelona ‘profile’,” Iniesta says. Suárez, who was at Barcelona airport to collect him on Saturday night, said of their 15 months as Liverpool team-mates: “Philippe was incredible. He changed us completely. He’s the one that gave us the faith in having the ball because his http://www.footballseahawksproonline.com/Bryan-Walters-Jersey technical ability is so good. You knew he wouldn’t lose it, you knew that he would produce something special with it, that he would always choose the right pass … you could see straight away that he was different.” Those qualities are the ones that mean Barcelona feel he is the best equipped for their future. baseball jerseyswholesale jerseysnfl jerseys free shippingdiscount jerseyscheap nfl jerseys nikenike nfl jerseysnfl jerseys wholesale

For the grand arrival of VAR in English domestic football there ought to have been a fanfare of whistles, a cheerleading display of referee’s assistants waving flags and the two groups of players drawing rectangles instead of the pre-match handshake. As it turned out the handy monitor on the touchline waited, tucked on its stand, quietly inactive, like an unplugged robot, a few yards to the left of the managers’ technical areas. But Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Womens Jersey if that is the glitzy side of VAR, the drama for all to see if and when a referee chooses to use the monitor to look again for himself at something he has doubts about, then the nitty gritty is the quick line of communication back to base camp and the additional officials studying the angles.
The weird twist in this tale came late and in that manner. Just as it seemed the match was set to finish without controversy, with VAR uneeded and unused, Glenn Murray popped up with a matchwinner that was accompanied by enough questions to justify another look from the new backup technology. The word from the referee, Andre Marriner, was quick and to the point: “Check it.”
Neil Swarbrick and his assistant, Peter Kirkup, who spent the match installed in front of a selection of monitors relaying more than a dozen angles and specialist goal cameras at the Premier League TV headquarters at Stockley Park, referred to the replays to check for two things. Was it offside? No. Did the ball skim his arm as it deflected in off his knee? That was the more complicated area. The angles Swarbrick and Kirkup studied were inconclusive so there was no clear reason to disallow the goal.
On we went, Brighton 2-1 up. That was not much consolation for Crystal Palace’s following, who raged with the urge to appeal when the goal was plastered across the big screens at the Amex Stadium. It was maybe not the smartest move under the circumstances. Roy Hodgson had no problem with the goal, though, which helped the cause of VAR moving forwards. The upshot is that VAR was used and generally adjudged to come to the right decision, but just as notable was the speed with which the intervention took place. The exchange between Marriner and his assistants in front of the screens was barely discernible, so the concerns about how much it might delay the flow of the game were not an issue in this case.
The nature of VAR is to attempt to deal with controversy, so it will not be surprising to have some minor issues. Teething problems will come with the territory as the game adjusts to this innovation. For all parties with a http://www.floridapanthersofficialo...line.com/Adidas-Aaron-Ekblad-Jersey vested interest – managers, players, officials, supporters, media – it will take some time to http://www.officialdodgersteamshop.com/Adrian_Gonzalez_Jersey settle.
This looked like being the gentlest of introductions. The majority of the game was so devoid of the dubious the mind wandered to a wacky encounter between these two teams in 1989 for a game marked by the award of five penalties in less than half an hour. The footage includes the sight of Kelvin Morton, the referee that day, enacting a speedy A.J. Bouye Jersey version of Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly walks as he races away from players’ complaints. Stick that in your VAR monitor and watch it smoke.
The Amex was far from heaving on a night when the post-Christmas chill and pinch was evidently felt. There were plenty of unused blue seats – not only the entire corner blocks on either side of the Palace fans which were completely empty, with their section behind the goal hemmed in by a row of orange-coated stewards. For all the antipathy between these clubs – and the two sets of fans amused themselves by exchanging unpleasantries – nothing seemed out of the ordinary, which was a relief after the last meeting of these local-ish rivals, which had been a fiercer affair.
Brighton took the lead midway through the first half, Wayne Hennessey offering only a startled half save at his near post which was not enough to keep out Dale Stephens’s shot. Marriner fiddled with his earpiece but to no discernible effect. Some wags in the Brighton support wondered if they might check the VAR for a case of mistaken identity as the sight of Stephens scoring was unusual enough to require confirmation. There was absolutely nothing contentious about that goal or Bakary Sako’s scorching equaliser. He controlled the ball, spun and walloped a shot that fizzed past Tim Krul.
In terms of the laws of the game the VAR monitor remained dormant, in its self-spooning position. It remains to be seen how that goes down when a referee needs to consult it.
The fact that the VAR referee Swarbrick was consulted, and gave his opinion with the mininum of fuss, is already a form of progress. wholesale jerseys allcheap mlb jerseyswholesale jerseys cheapnhl jerseys china

It is Friday, just after 10am, but Ashton Gate is alive and kicking. Lee Johnson and his backroom staff are among those gearing up for the following day’s FA Cup tie at Watford and Tuesday’s trip to Manchester City in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals. Mark Ashton, meanwhile, has an eye on the January transfer window. “It is a bizarre time of the year – my phone’s in my pocket and in a minute it will just http://www.authenticmagicproshop.co...thentic-2-elfrid-payton-jersey.html buzz, buzz, buzz,” Bristol City’s chief executive officer says. “I’ll have three or four people on hold, chasing me or after information.” He is awaiting confirmation that midfielder Liam Walsh has joined from Everton.
Outside Ashton’s office are the Latin words ductus exemplo – lead by example – and a print of a flock of geese. Inside the conversation moves to the club’s motto, born from a discussion between Ashton and Johnson last summer, that hangs in the tunnel on match-day and at the training ground: relentless in the pursuit of excellence. The motto can also be found in the red leather players’ handbook, a bible of sorts given to each squad member, so that “everybody knows who’s who in the zoo”. In it there is an introduction from Steve Lansdown, the billionaire owner, plus every detail imaginable: club contacts, player welfare, social media policies as well as player-derived club fines. “It brings a no-excuses culture,” Ashton says, whereby, “for the first time, everyone knows the rules.”
Bristol City is a fun place to be, though, and a hungry learning environment as is evident during a fascinating day Bart Starr Jersey behind the scenes at one of the Championship’s most exciting clubs, led by one of the brightest young managers, empowered by a rare owner. “Not only do we have UK ownership … but we have Bristolian ownership, who care about the football club and are looking to build sustainable success,” Ashton says. There is a robust philosophy and a thirst to improve, to share ideas and practices – such as the use of drones at training or a bespoke app – between coaches under the Bristol Sport umbrella, from Johnson to Pat Lam, the Bristol Rugby head coach, or Andreas Kapoulas of Bristol Flyers, who will take England’s basketball team to the Commonwealth Games in April. “We have a WhatsApp group between us all,” Ashton says. “And the first person who messages after a football win is Pat, and vice-versa.”
This time last year the Robins had lost nine of their previous 10 league matches and were three points above the relegation zone. Now they are two points off second and in the last four of a national cup competition after beating Manchester United in the quarter-finals. The match-winner that delirious December night, Korey Smith, reveals that one family placed a picture of him at the top of their Christmas tree. Jaden Neale, the 10-year-old ballboy whose celebration with Johnson became the defining image of that win, will be at the Etihad Stadium with his family as Manchester City’s special guest.
“We probably ran before we could walk,” Johnson says, reflecting on last season’s struggles. “Maybe we didn’t set the rules within the squad. We thought we had but maybe we didn’t.” A frank debrief last summer proved the bedrock for this season. “We probably did more work, believe it or not, on the culture over the summer than we did on transfers – that’s how important we felt it was,” Johnson says, crediting the human resources “general superhero” Sara Sainsbury. “It’s Gandhi; you have to be http://www.officialpatriotsfootball...com/SUPER-BOWL-BRANDIN-COOKS-JERSEY the creature you want to create.”
Forensic player recruitment has also been key to City’s “partial-success”, as Johnson puts it. Ashton has a hefty in-house dossier, reviewing the previous transfer Authentic Martellus Bennett Jersey window, that makes a thud as it lands on the desk. “It takes in all the business that has taken place across all divisions, to understand the market as it moves. It helps us value our own players and those we might be looking at.”
There is a weekly recruitment meeting, where usually 10 staff will talk targets and analyse core data against tailor-made technical specifications. There is also the due diligence and personality profiling that includes taking a look at a prospective signing’s tweets. “First and foremost we try and recruit great people,” Johnson says. There is an equal emphasis on developing players through the club’s academy, the source of enormous pride and several first-team players, including the key pair Bobby Reid and Joe Bryan. “We had another real watershed moment,” Gary Davenport, the academy assistant manager, says, “when Lloyd [Kelly] scored against Reading on Boxing Day. He runs to the corner and the first two on the scene to celebrate with him are Joe and Bobby. That image says so much.”
Two further academy players – Opi Edwards and Connor Lemonheigh-Evans – made their full debuts at Vicarage Road on Saturday. Eight have been handed first-team debuts in the past two years, including Shawn McCoulsky, the 21-year-old on loan at Newport County who scored the winner against Leeds United on Sunday. A relatively clear pathway helps.

In a week when two of his counterparts have been unable to let sleeping dogs lie, something is still biting away at Arsène Wenger too. The injustice he feels at the penalty awarded to Eden Hazard during Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea last Wednesday has not yet faded and, when the pair meet again in Wednesday’s League Cup semi-final first leg, any repeat of a decision he called “farcical” would risk something akin to spontaneous combustion high in the Stamford Bridge stands.
That is where Wenger will spend the match, as a continuing legacy of his similarly outraged reaction to West Bromwich Albion’s spot-kick on 31 December but he is not yet ready to view what he saw as a dive from Hazard at a remove. Initially misunderstanding a question about Antonio Conte’s claim that it was his “way” to query referees, he ended up inadvertently agreeing with the Chelsea manager while airing his grievances about Hazard again.
“I questioned the decision of the referee. Then, we are objective. You look at the picture. You see how Hazard goes down and you see how quickly he takes the penalty when he gets the penalty,” he said of the forward’s reaction to a Authentic Lawrence Timmons Jersey challenge offered by Héctor Bellerín.
“If he was so injured why did he take the penalty? He made more of it, [like a] professional, basically, and shouts. I can understand that. I do not blame Hazard. He acted in a very professional way to get the penalty for his team, which he did well.”
Another objective view is that it was a clear penalty and that, Hazard’s overreaction notwithstanding, Wenger’s energy is misdirected on a call nowhere near as egregious as that taken by Mike Dean at The Hawthorns. Yet Womens Thomas Vanek Jersey it is the latter that has cost him his place in the dugout and, as he watches his team battle to retain their only chance of a domestic trophy, there will be familiar feelings of helplessness.
Last February a four-match ban for pushing the fourth official Anthony Taylor – coincidentally the referee who judged Bellerín to have fouled Hazard – included a 3-1 league defeat at Stamford Bridge. He watched Nicklas Grossmann Jersey from a designated area in the East Stand and remembers the situation as “very uncomfortable” and “awkward”, not aided by his location near the home support or the time-consuming walk to the dressing rooms.
“I will try to find a different place,” he said of Wednesday evening’s http://www.jetsofficialsfootballpro...OMENS_YOUTH_JOSH_MARTIN_JERSEY.html seating plan and he will hope the same can be said of his players, too. Wenger was rattled by Arsenal’s lifeless FA Cup surrender at Nottingham Forest on Sunday, describing himself as “very disappointed with some individual performances”.
It is certainly not a good look when Alex Iwobi, a young player who has no business feeling sure of a future in the top bracket at this stage, is http://www.authenticcolumbusbluejac...ets.com/authentic-sam-gagner-jersey purportedly seen partying on the weekend of a Cup tie, especially when the manager subsequently felt compelled to defend his own attitude towards knockout competitions.
“Nobody has won the FA Cup more http://www.officialhawkstore.com/Pete_Maravich_Jersey than I did but still it is [seen as] an absolute disaster,” he said of the 4-2 defeat. “Get somebody to win it more and then Authentic Michael Jordan Jersey I say, ‘OK, well done.’ But nobody in the whole history of English football won it more, so I always took the competition in a serious way. I am unhappy to go out, of course, but you must accept as well that there’s no guarantee you will win it every year.”
Wenger’s next segue, though, told more about what is at stake over these two legs. His argument was unfashionable but compelling: the cups will grow in significance because, with so much money around and only one title winner, tangible reward becomes increasingly precious. nfl jerseys outletcheap jerseys usanike nfl jerseysjerseys wholesalemlb baseball jerseysnfl jerseys authenticnhl hockey jerseys

No sooner had Philippe Coutinho’s frenetic scribble sealed a £142m transfer to Barcelona than he was forced to hurdle the first attempted tackle on him at Camp Nou. What, one interrogator asked at his unveiling, did http://www.saintsshopfootball.com/Authentic-Josh-Hill-Jersey he make of his fee? “It’s an honour but I’ll leave the topic of money for the clubs,” he deftly replied. Yet the question is bound to scratch and linger, and could potentially turn poisonous. Is such a sum – the second biggest transfer in history – for the 25-year-old Brazilian justified?
Barcelona’s thinking is easy to grasp. They are scooting away with the league title but their goals per game rate is at its lowest since the 2013-14 season, after which they subsequently rearmed by signing Luis Suárez from Liverpool for £75m. Their squad clearly needs freshening up too. For while Lionel Messi has 60 goals and assists in La Liga since the start of last season – more than anyone in Europe’s top five leagues – and Suárez is second with 53, both are closing in on their 31st birthday. Sports Science 101 tells us that physically they are on the decline, even if the eye test does not always back that up.
Coutinho also represents a shiny upgrade on the 33-year-old Andrés Iniesta, the man he has been bought to replace. As Omar Chaudhuri, the head of intelligence at the football consultancy 21st Club, points out, since the start of last season the Brazilian has scored 20 league goals and provided 13 assists – while Iniesta has one goal and three assists.
Chaudhuri, who works with several leading European clubs, also points out that Coutinho tends to get on the ball more inside the final third compared with Iniesta and is almost twice as likely to take on an opponent when in possession, which brings fans off their seats even it does not directly lead to goals. He also, crucially, has his best years ahead of him.
Yet whether the Brazilian is one of the top half dozen or so players in world football is harder to demonstrate. One way to measure attacking ability, for instance, is to look at a player’s goals and assists per 90 minutes (G+A per 90). Coutinho averages 0.88 G+A per 90 in the Premier League since the start of 2016-17, which ranks him 31st in Europe’s five major leagues. Messi, predictably, is way out in front on 1.42, with Kylian Mbappé second. Incidentally Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah is 14th with 1.06. By this measure Coutinho is very good but not exceptional.
Coutinho also scores well on another metric – chances created per match. In the past 18 months http://www.officialflamesauthentic.com/Johnny_Gaudreau_Jersey he has averaged an impressive 2.81 chances per 90 minutes in the Premier League – the 22nd best in Europe’s major leagues – although he does still rank behind Cesc Fàbregas (4.2), Mesut Özil (3.38), Kevin De Bruyne (3.25) and even Christian Eriksen (2.93).
Of course such figures will not fully capture Coutinho’s ability, and Barcelona’s intention to make him more of an ‘interior’ midfielder – playing deeper than he does at Liverpool – will mean that other areas of his game, including his quick feet and accurate passing, could be as important as his goal production. Even so, it is tough to make the case on the Jahri Evans Womens Jersey numbers that Josh Sitton Youth jersey he is truly exceptional.
Interestingly on Monday when the respected CIES Football Observatory published its annual assessment of the transfer values of top players, it ranked Coutinho as the 16th most valuable star in world football at €122m. Its calculations, based on performances, international status, age and contract situation suggested that Neymar (€213m) is the most valuable, with Messi (€202m) second and Harry Kane (€195m) third. Of course Barcelona had €222m burning a hole in their pockets after selling Neymar to PSG last year, which inflated Coutinho’s fee.

The chant from the Arsenal fans was clear and it was directed at the press box. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” they sang. The target was not hunched over a laptop. This one was for Arsène Wenger, who had taken up residence among the folk he has variously described as snakes, sharks and philosophers over the years, as he served the second instalment of his three-game touchline ban.
The Arsenal manager had brought off Alexandre Lacazette in the 66th minute and the travelling support could not believe it. There were boos http://www.authenticwarriorstore.com/Damian_Jones_Jersey as the striker headed off and Alexis Sánchez came on. The latter had been the shock omission from the starting lineup, which formed the principle sub-plot of the evening.
Arsenal were in the throes of weathering a second-half storm in this Carabao Cup semi-final, first-leg. They simply could not get Brandon Bollig Jersey out as Chelsea probed for the opportunity to take charge. The frustration bubbled among the visiting fans. They had wanted to retain the outlet of Lacazette, however peripheral he had been.
Their team would hold firm and Wenger could enjoy a little succour in the face of what he calls the “circus” around his club. The jesters had been out after Sunday’s FA Cup exit at Nottingham Forest and it was a nervy ride as Chelsea made the running. But the home team could not find a way through.
They had 21 attempts on goal to Arsenal’s eight but only six were on target. David Ospina saved from Victor Moses and Álvaro Morata while he was helped out by his near post following another Moses shot. Cesc Fàbregas blew a free header, Andreas Christensen did likewise with two more and, after the 0-0 draw at Norwich City in the FA Cup on Saturday, it was no surprise to hear Antonio Conte bemoan his team’s profligacy.
That was not directed, he added, at Morata, who endured another difficult match. Conte did make the point that at least Chelsea had created chances. It was another occasion when the video assistant referee was in use and the technology was required to rule on Danny Welbeck’s 87th-minute challenge on Fàbregas inside the penalty area. Conte appeared to make the signal for VAR involvement – Braylon Edwards Jersey which, apparently, is not allowed – and there was a delay after the referee, Martin Atkinson, pulled back play for the decision, which was radioed into his earpiece. Happily, the right one was forthcoming. Welbeck had played the ball.
The Sánchez situation cast long shadows. When he is in the Arsenal squad, he starts. Not here. The club’s joint-leading scorer was on the bench. “You cannot explain every decision,” Wenger said. No one could explain this one without thinking of Manchester City’s January push to sign the forward.
Wenger was in the stands at Stamford Bridge last season – he was suspended for the league fixture – and he described it as an “uncomfortable” experience. He really slummed it this time. There were times when he banged his fist on the long blue ledge that serves as the desk, mainly when Eden Hazard or Morata went down. He kicked the chair in front of him – much to its occupant’s delight – and there were yells at plenty of decisions, both from Atkinson and Arsenal players. The emotions churned.
The game was diverting without being http://www.officialauthenticgiantst...om/Nike-Weston-Richburg-Jersey.html gripping and Wenger cited the familiarity of these rivals as a cause for the impasse. This was their fourth meeting of the season – including the Community Shield.
Moses had already worked Ospina at his near post when he got a second bite at a chance inside the area on 28 minutes. He rattled the same post with a low shot, with Calum Chambers reacting quickly to clear. In first-half stoppage time, Fàbregas ought to have done better than to head at Ospina from César Azpilicueta’s floated ball. nike nfl jerseys 2016cheap nfl jerseys free shippingwholesale nfl jerseys chinabaseball jerseys for sale

Nothing escapes Pep Guardiola. “Bristol City have already beaten four Premier League sides in this competition,” the Manchester City manager noted beforehand. “That tells me something is going on and we need to be careful.”
Goodness knows what sort of a side Guardiola would come up with if he was being cavalier, then. His safety-first policy here amounted to keeping most of his big-name attackers but reshuffling his defence, perhaps not the wisest policy against adventurous opponents full of confidence and on a hiding to nothing.
Bristol City would have been delighted to see Sergio Agüero left on the http://www.falconsfootballofficialp...hop.com/YOUTH+WES+SCHWEITZER+JERSEY bench, and surprised that both Fabian Delph and Kyle Walker were keeping him company, so that Oleksandr Zinchenko could continue where he left off against Burnley on Saturday. That is to say at left-back, just where one would expect to find an attacking midfielder who happens to be Ukraine’s youngest international goalscorer. “I trust all my players to perform,” Guardiola explained. “Even if they are playing in unfamiliar positions.”
Possibly Guardiola has spent the festive period watching repeats of Eric Morecambe at the piano, though however eccentric the methods, his results demand respect. It was still likely to be Bristol City who needed to be careful, whether or not they have something going on. While Lee Johnson’s side have slipped down the Championship table slightly since eliminating Manchester United last month, they still retain realistic hopes of promotion and this is the sort of standard Authentic Nate Stupar Jersey top-flight teams have to live with. Or not, as the case may be. Manchester United have yet to visit the Etihad this season but Bristol City’s three other Carabao Cup victims – Watford, Stoke and Crystal Palace – all foundered here while conceding 15 goals between them.
The visitors can reflect that they outperformed all three and, even if last-gasp heartbreak is also something that goes with Premier League territory, this encounter suggested the divisions within the top flight may be greater than the gulf that separates it from the top of the second tier.
Hordur Magnusson could testify that a class gap nevertheless exists after a couple of minutes, when after being turned inside out by Bernardo Silva on the right touchline, he regained position just in time to see his opponent slip the ball square to an unmarked Kevin De Bruyne. The home’s side captain not only has the knack of finding space almost anywhere on the pitch but using it well, and for the next few minutes he enjoyed himself at the Robins’ expense, whether testing Frank Fielding with a shot disguised as a cross or finding Raheem Sterling with a superb pass from halfway that really should have brought a better response from the England forward.
Yet Bristol City http://www.authenticnikegiantshop.com/Aldrick-Rosas-Jersey did not reach the last four by standing back and admiring opponents, and a glimpse http://www.authenticcardinalsbaseba...om/Authentic-Adam-Wainwright-Jersey of their true character was seen when Jamie Paterson skipped past Ilkay Gündogan in the centre circle as if the German was wading through wet Womens Trumaine Johnson Jersey cement. A few minutes later Joe Bryan set off on a run and produced a diving save from Claudio Bravo. Marlon Pack brought another Bravo stop shortly before the interval as the visitors began to gain encouragement. The reserve goalkeeper is one of the areas where Guardiola’s theory of complete trustworthiness is worth testing, and on this evidence Danilo at right-back might be another, for the defender had trouble all night containing Bryan. Had Paterson made more of one opening he engineered, the underdogs could have been in front even before Bobby Reid’s penalty.
A certain indecisiveness had characterised the home side’s attacking play up to that point, with plenty of possession and opportunity but no one demanding the ball or providing a go-to man in front of goal. Sterling seemed to struggle with the responsibility of being pushed further forward. While much improved this season, his finishing is still far from deadly in situations where one would expect him to score, though he did play an important part Bart Starr Jersey in http://www.goldenstatewarriorsauthe...ic.com/Womens-Andre-Iguodala-Jersey De Bruyne’ equaliser.
As, to be fair, did the oft-maligned Bravo. A few home supporters must have been peeping through their fingers as the goalkeeper allowed a back pass from John Stones to run across the face of goal before clearing at the last moment under pressure from an opponent, but the eventual clearance found De Bruyne in space and Joseph Young Jersey the invitation was not wasted.
Significantly Walker, as well as Agüero, was on the field by the time the late winner arrived. Both should probably start at Ashton Gate. In cup competitions, after all, one cannot be too careful.

Since becoming Everton’s majority shareholder in 2016, Farhad Moshiri has developed a reputation for being a man who does not understand that all publicity is not necessarily good publicity. This has been seen through his often toe-curling briefings to Sky Sports’ Jim White and once again at Everton’s AGM on Tuesday when the Iranian-born businessman claimed Romelu Lukaku rejected a contract with the club last summer because “he had a voodoo”. Lukaku, who is Catholic and not prone to making career decisions based on the advice of religious cults, is understandably considering legal action.
It was a crass choice of words on Moshiri’s part but in regards to Everton’s on-pitch fortunes, not the most significant thing he said to shareholders gathered at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall. Arguably that was his response when asked how far Sam Allardyce can take the club, having been appointed manager in November. “We’ll have to wait and see,” Moshiri said. Such a clipped, less-than-enthusiastic reply felt telling.
To some extent there is nothing new here. Allardyce signed an 18-month contract as Ronald Koeman’s successor and, as such, it was obvious how his appointment was viewed by those who hired him, namely Moshiri and Everton’s chairman, Bill Kenwright: a short-term firefighter tasked with pulling the club out of relegation trouble. Almost two months on that objective has pretty much been achieved – before facing Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley on Saturday, Everton sit ninth and are unlikely to go down.
The question now is: what next? Following last week’s FA Cup third-round defeat by Liverpool, the season is in effect over for the blue half of Merseyside. They are out of Europe, out of both domestic cups and, starting http://www.officialseahawksfootball.com/YOUTH+GEORGE+FANT+JERSEY with Tottenham, have 16 further league fixtures to complete. It is either a case of simply getting through them or using each to build for the future. For all concerned, and Allardyce in particular, it would make sense to focus Drew Storen Womens Jersey on the latter.
The 63-year-old has long spoken about how he feels he has been unfairly pigeonholed as a manager; an overly cautious tactician whose style of play is more meat and potatoes than tiki-taka. Well, here he is now, at the biggest club job of a managerial career spanning more than 20 years, and realistically the only way he is going to last beyond this campaign is by showing he is more than his reputation suggests. Sadly for Allardyce, Opta’s statistics show that during his Everton tenure, he has been just that.
After eight Premier League games under Allardyce, Everton’s goals-per-game ratio stands at 1.0, only a marginal increase on that under Koeman (0.8), lower than it was under caretaker manager David Unsworth (2.0) and lower than the teams that sit either side of them in the table – Leicester City (1.5) and Watford (1.4).
In comparison to Koeman and Unsworth, Allardyce’s Everton are also down on shots per game and shots on target per game (7.3 and http://www.authenticcanadienshop.co...authentic-41-paul-byron-jersey.html 2.6 respectively). They are also making fewer passes per game under the former England manager compared with Koeman specifically (368 compared with 430) and enjoying fewer touches in the opposition box per game overall (13 compared Chuck Klein Jersey with 19 under Koeman and 16 under Unsworth).
Everton have improved defensively, now conceding 0.8 goals per game compared with 2.0 under both Koeman and Unsworth, and are working harder, covering 112.2km per game compared with 109.5km under Koeman and 111.5km under Unsworth. But all that proves is that while Allardyce has achieved his first objective of making Everton harder to beat, he has yet to show he has what it takes to progress the club further than that.
“Part of this is to do with the make-up of a poorly balanced squad– nobody to set the tempo of play, for example,” says Paddy Boyland, contributor to the influential Everton podcast, The Blue Room. “Saying that, Ted Ginn Jr Jersey there have been occasions when Allardyce could have been bolder. Picking three defensive midfielders at Bournemouth springs to mind in that regard.

Quique Sánchez Flores has emerged as Stoke City’s preferred choice to replace Mark Hughes. The Espanyol manager is expected to make a decision on his future within the next 24 hours and did nothing to dispel the idea he is seriously considering returning to the Premier League after refusing to discuss his position in the wake of last night’s Copa del Rey victory over Levante.
Although Martin O’Neill remains under consideration for the post and has held talks with Stoke officials, Flores is seen as a longer-term solution to a managerial search that became more problematic from the moment Gary Rowett pledged his future to Derby County.
It is understood that John Coates, Stoke’s vice-chairman, and Tony Scholes, the chief executive, travelled to Barcelona on Wednesday to meet Flores and outline their vision for the club.
Flores, however, was coy when quizzed by reporters 24 hours later about whether he was planning to take over at Stoke. “I do not talk about me,” http://www.footballsteelersofficial....com/Nike-Justin-Hunter-Jersey.html he said after Espanyol won 2-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate to reach the Copa del Rey quarter-finals.
Pressed on whether he was committed to the project at Espanyol, where he was appointed on a three-year contract in the summer of 2016, Flores replied: “The commitment to my profession is very clear to me, for more than 30 years when I started Miami Marlins Youth jersey playing, that is unavoidable.
“I am very grateful to Espanyol. At some point I felt that we did not advance at the promised speed, but that is not because Espanyol have not wanted to, but because they Authentic Shaquille O'Neal Jersey have not been able to. They have given me the tools they have been able to, we are in happy times, to enjoy, to laugh in the dressing room – I think we are David Price Womens Jersey in the right dynamic.”
The big question for Flores, who guided Watford to a 13th-placed finish in the Premier League and an FA Cup semi-final only to be sacked at the end of that 2015-16 season, is whether he is willing to walk out on Espanyol in the middle of a campaign. Stoke expect an answer from Flores quickly on that front.
The alternative for the Midlands club is O’Neill. Although still in charge of the Republic of Ireland, the 65-year-old has yet to put pen to paper on the new contract that Authentic Nick Easton Jersey was verbally agreed in November, just prior to the Denmark defeat that ended any hopes of qualifying for the World Cup finals.
Vastly experienced, the former Celtic, Leicester and Sunderland manager is highly regarded by Peter Coates, the Stoke chairman, and has a proven track record in http://www.panthersshopnfl.com/Authentic-Ed-Dickson-Jersey the http://www.footballredskinsofficialstore.com/Will_Compton_Jersey Premier League. Stoke could do without the uncertainty carrying on much longer. They face Manchester United on Monday and although they always accepted there was a possibility that Hughes’s replacement would not be in the dugout for that trip to Old Trafford – it is understood the players have been told that Eddie Niedzwiecki will almost certainly be in charge in a caretaker capacity for that match – Stoke’s hierarchy would ideally like to have appointed a new manager by then. cheap jerseys wholesalebaseball jerseys for salenfl jerseys wholesalemlb jerseys chinajerseys wholesalenfl jerseys free shippingwholesale jerseys usa

Jürgen Klopp has said it was an easy decision to sell Philippe Coutinho once it became clear Liverpool had “no chance” of keeping the Brazilian committed for the remainder of the season.
The Liverpool manager confirmed he had the final say on accepting Barcelona’s £142m offer for the 25-year-old and that the proceeds of the sale were available to reinvest. Klopp also claimed his team would become more unpredictable without their influential playmaker. It was Coutinho’s determination to force through his dream move to the Camp Nou and his rejection of Liverpool’s attempts to convince him to stay, however, that persuaded Klopp to sanction the second-biggest transfer in world football.
Klopp said: “If I would have said: ‘No http://www.officialauthenticsteeler...com/WOMENS-DONNIE-SHELL-JERSEY.html way’, the club would have said: ‘OK, let’s try’ [to keep Coutinho] but it was clear there was no chance. It’s not that there was an open question and in the end I had 50% pro, 50% against and had to make a decision. In the end it was quite easy.”
He believes it would have been pointless holding Coutinho to his contract, as the club did in the summer, despite the player’s impressive form in the first half of the campaign. “That was a decision I had to make: does it make sense, do I think I can still use him, can he help us still?” Klopp said. “To be honest, it was 100% clear no chance. It was clear he was not ready to do that any more.”
Klopp elaborated: “It was not that we had a talk and he said my head is somewhere else; it was just Brian Cushing Authentic Jersey clear after we spoke that it would not work out. We had a lot of talks about different things, how we can do this or that, but if somebody denies things like that then it is clear the decision is done. At some point you need to accept it and that is what we did. I can imagine what people have said and written this week and I would think similar if we as a club had not tried everything. If the club said after the first call: ‘Good idea, we wanted to Dennis Eckersley Authentic Jersey call you actually because we don’t want to have him’ then it would be different. But http://www.officialauthenticfalcons.../Nike-Devondre-Campbell-Jersey.html we tried everything.
“What a football player he is, and he will be such a good player for Barcelona as well, but for us in a few games, like Tottenham away, he was not always in the best shape. It was kind of a solution for us to give him the ball. No. We don’t have to look for that. It can make us more unpredictable if we don’t.”
Liverpool have sold a prized asset midway through a highly promising season but Klopp denies taking a risk. “My job is always a risk but I could not decide differently, so no,” he said.
Anfield officials are trying to bring forward Naby Keita’s £55m summer move from Red Bull Leipzig and Klopp insists the Coutinho money will be reinvested in his squad. But he was non-committal on whether the Brazilian would be replaced in this window.
Klopp, who has made no attempt to sign Alexis Sánchez from Arsenal this month, said: “We will get all the money. Always since I’m here we can have all the monies from transfers and more if needed. So far we got all the players we wanted to have. Now one has left and it’s not too cool but it’s not a real problem at all … We will bring in other players. If we do it in this window, I don’t know.”

Antonio Conte has refused to rule out leaving Chelsea in the summer, saying “everything is possible” in response to speculation about his exit.
The Juventus manager, Massimiliano Allegri, http://www.ramsofficialsonline.com/Tyler_Higbee_Jersey_Cheap has been linked with taking Conte’s position at Stamford Bridge in the event that he departs in pre-season, a year before the end of his contract. Conte stressed, though, that it would be the club’s decision and suggested that Chelsea’s high turnover of coaches increases the amount of scrutiny on the role.
When asked about the link with Allegri, who has been joined by Luis Enrique and the Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri on Chelsea’s list of reported targets, Conte said: “Everything is possible. I have another year of contract at this club, but everything is possible. In one moment you stay here; in another moment you are in another place and another person replaces you and your job. Football is like this. Our job is very difficult – everything can change a few times.”
Pressed later on whether that means he could walk away from the club, Conte offered a flat “no” and said he was “fully committed”. He explained Chelsea would have to break his contract, also saying the club’s history – Conte is their fifth full-time manager this decade while Rafael Benítez and Guus Hiddink have also taken interim roles – makes rumours Hau'oli Kikaha Womens Jersey inevitable.
“It is normal for the manager of this club to have this type of situation, also if you won last season the league and Joonas Donskoi Womens Jersey reached the final of the FA Cup – this is the history of this club for the manager,” he said, perhaps thinking back to Carlo Ancelotti’s sacking in 2011, a year after winning the double. “I have a lot Mitch Unrein Jersey of experience in dealing with this type of situation but there Womens Stanley Cup Jersey is something strange if after the first game, which we lost against Burnley, the press push quickly to sack me. In another club this doesn’t happen.
“I have another year of contract and in this case I think the club has to decide to send me away. We have started a big work here with the players and the club, and you http://www.officialpenguinsauthentic.com/Sidney_Crosby_Jersey need time to improve your work and create a solid basis. In football now it is very difficult to predict if you can stay many years with one club, especially in England. Before, managers in England were in charge for many years. Now all of a sudden you decide to sack managers earlier.”
Conte, whose side face Leicester City at home on Saturday, was also asked about a conversation he held with Alexis Sánchez in the tunnel at Stamford Bridge before the Arsenal game on Wednesday night. He is a long-term fan of the 29-year-old but said that, if Manchester City wish to sign him, Chelsea would be powerless even in the event they were interested.
“He’s a great player and knows very well that in my first season at Juventus we tried to buy him from Udinese, but then he decided to go to Barcelona,” he said. “He knows well my admiration for him and this was a good chance to say hello to him. I have great admiration for great players and Alexis Sánchez is one of those players.
“If Manchester City want Alexis Sánchez then they buy Alexis Sánchez. They don’t have a http://www.authenticdodgersshop.com...uthentic-33-tony-watson-jersey.html problem about money or this investment. I think it is a good investment – we are talking about a price that is not so high. The amount is around £20m. Maybe the normal amount is €80m to €90m.”
A more local concern for Conte is the form of Álvaro Morata, who has scored only five times in his past 21 games and looks short of confidence in front of goal. Conte acknowledged the striker’s difficult spell but said he is happy with his overall contribution. basketball jerseys cheapwholesale nfl jerseys cheapwholesale nfl jerseys supplynfl jerseys outlethockey jerseys cheapcheap nba jerseyscheap jerseys usa

There was a moment of jarringly delicate beauty 58 minutes into this game as Liverpool did not just beat Manchester City http://www.officialauthenticbroncos...com/Nike-Justin-Simmons-Jersey.html at Anfield but wrenched that frictionless unbeaten run away from the league leaders with a startling, controlled fury.
Jürgen Klopp’s side were led here by Roberto Firmino, who produced another performance of thrillingly sustained energy and skill, terrorising City’s backline at times in the second half and embodying the pure exhilaration of Klopp’s high-craft power-chord football. With the score level at 1-1 Liverpool were already thrumming up though the gears, about to enter a rare 10-minute period of synchronised press-and-move football during which the whole world seemed to turn a shade of red; and during which they were, briefly, unstoppable.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain took the ball deep in Liverpool’s half and played a snaking pass inside John Stones. As Stones turned to shield the ball he was bullocked out of the way with malevolent glee by Firmino, a player for whom pressing and closing down is not so much a chore as a hungrily devoured pleasure.
With Stones on his knees Firmino paused, looked up and produced a moment of startling delicacy, from sledgehammer to scalpel in a single shift of feet, lifting a lovingly dinked finish past Ederson as he rushed out. For a moment the ball seemed to hang dreamily under the lights, the air rushing out of the stadium, before falling in a gentle parabola and bouncing in off the post.
Anfield exploded with a huge gurgle of joy. Firmino sprinted for the corner flag. And three minutes later it was 3-1, from a similar moment of snatch and run. This time Mohamed Salah robbed Nicolás Otamendi, then fed the ball across the penalty area. Sadio Mané picked it up, paused and spanked the ball with startling precision into the top corner.
It was always likely to take something like this to throw City out of their stride, a performance where every part thunked into place, where both the plan and Torey Krug Jersey the execution reached a rare pitch of perfection.
How to play City, how to beat City, how to make at least some imprint on that well-grooved machine has been a theme of this mid&#8209;season title stroll. Liverpool’s hard&#8209;running, hard-pressing style had always offered some hope of locating the glass jaw some had suggested still lurks behind that annihilating jab, the poise of City’s passing game.
And City played their part in a wonderfully open game. Where other managers might have tried to shut things down away to their liveliest challengers, Guardiola put out a team with three full-time defenders and six midfielders of varying shades. Klopp made one big call, dropping the regularly unconvincing Simon Mignolet for the as-yet only briefly unconvincing Loris Karius.
On a freezing, damp, ear-numbing afternoon Anfield’s vast single-tier stands were crackling with electricity at kick-off. And with three minutes gone two things happened for the first time that would come to define this game. Firmino ripped an alarmingly huge hole in the centre of City’s defence with a single movement, barging a yard of space and flicking the ball cleverly into Mané’s path, setting the tone for an afternoon where Liverpool’s frontline would play right up against one another, like three men roped together on a mountain. Moments later the second thing happened. Raheem Sterling touched the ball for the first time, to huge boos, and then gave it away for the first time, to huge cheers. If Firmino led Liverpool’s surge here, Sterling was a key part in City’s stumbling start. Frankly, he had a nightmare. Sterling left the pitch with 25 minutes to http://www.officialfootballfalconst...MENS_YOUTH_ANDY_LEVITRE_JERSEY.html go, roared off to a standing anti&#8209;ovation by the home crowd after one of those performances where no matter how hard you try, how furiously you work to put things right, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Youth jersey they just keep slipping away, the bobble off the shin, the muffed dribbles, the inevitable booking. As he brushes his teeth this evening Sterling will no doubt find himself taking a sneaky look up in the mirror just to check that shape lurking by the bathroom door is not Andrew Robertson steaming out of the airing cupboard to make another sniping, raking challenge at his heels. baseball jerseys customjerseys supplywholesale jerseys allnfl jerseys outlet

It may not go down as a season-defining moment but the turn executed by Son Heung&#8209;min 106 seconds after half-time, leaving Jonjoe Kenny plodding through quicksand while Wembley gasped in admiration, held significance of its own. For one thing it led to the goal from Harry Kane that broke the resolve of Everton, who had looked competent at 1-0 down but disintegrated rapidly after the deficit doubled. For another it crystallised a feeling that has, after the awkwardness of early life at Wembley, grown over the past six weeks. Tottenham are, at last, looking consistently like Tottenham again.
Mauricio Pochettino was in no mood to disagree and must feel his side have turned a corner after that patchy period in the autumn when rousing European nights were offset by stodgy afternoons against Burnley, Swansea and West Bromwich Albion.
Back then Pochettino would react wearily to suggestions that Spurs’ temporary accommodation was doing them no favours, while not altogether dispelling them. Now, after watching his players score four goals or more for the third time in five home league games, he was more than willing to mark the change. “You know very well the circumstances are different after we moved to Wembley,” he said. “I’m so proud of them.”
Once Everton had been weakened, Tottenham went for the jugular. They spent the http://www.authenticatlantabraves.com/Danny-Santana-Jersey second half attacking in tides, showing little appetite to slow up until Christian Eriksen had swept home their beautifully conceived fourth. Even then Son could be seen chasing Mason Holgate into an ungainly tangle on the edge of Everton’s six&#8209;yard box as the clock ticked down: it all evoked http://www.officialbillsnflauthentics.com/bills+corey+brown+jersey the best of the Pochettino era and their confidence has returned at a time when others are more given to introspection.
While Arsenal fret about Alexis Sánchez, Liverpool look to salve the open wound of Philippe Coutinho’s departure and the managers of Manchester United and Chelsea trade insults before the media, Tottenham’s worries are reducing. The festive period’s churn left them relatively unscathed and now, unencumbered by any serious suggestions that big names will leave this month, they exude a stability not evident in all their rivals for a top-four spot.
“Maybe it’s boring for you to hear the same [thing] but Tottenham can’t compare to other teams like Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea,” Pochettino said. “We are the opposite. We are doing our job; they have their strategy and we have our strategy. All that happens in other clubs will not affect us. It’s so important to focus on what we Drew Smyly Jersey need to achieve and how to improve.”
One of those improvements has come in the form of Son, who has been important to their tempo for some time and now operates as incisively as anyone in his position. He said afterwards that his partnership with Kane, at whose feet records continue to fall, “works really good” and there Dylan Bundy Womens Jersey were also signs that Dele Alli, provider of a glorious backheel for Eriksen’s goal, is playing his way out of a sticky spell. Then there is Eriksen, who had one of those games where nothing seems too much trouble and gave the impression – not for the first time – that Barcelona may have fixated on the wrong playmaker.
Pochettino was keener, though, to talk about the growth of his wider squad and expressed his happiness at the form of Serge Aurier, who created Son’s opener and has become an increasing influence. Aurier arrived from Paris Saint-Germain with some baggage but appears to have edged ahead of Kieran Trippier in the right-back pecking order. “There are a lot of bad things from his past in France, but he is a great guy and a great personality,” Hugo Lloris said of Aurier after the 4-0 win. Kevon Looney Womens Jersey “You can make mistakes as a person and learn a lot. Inside him is a fresh guy with good energy.”
Spurs radiate that freshness and energy just now. That spin and flick from Son, executed in one dizzying movement as he seized on Eric Dier’s firm pass, set the tone on Saturday but their collective shift in gear could not have been better timed.

Cyrille Regis, who has died aged 59 of a suspected heart attack, was a greatly admired centre-forward with West Bromwich Albion, Coventry and England and one of the first black footballers to make a significant impact on the British game.
Strong, quick and direct, he had an excellent touch and a very rare ability to score spectacular goals, typically picking up the ball from just inside the opposition’s half, beating a couple of players with a http://www.officialredsoxauthentic.com/David_Ortiz_Jersey dynamic, powerful run, and then shooting from outside the penalty area with unerring accuracy – as epitomised by his Goal of the Season against Norwich in the FA Cup in 1982.
With Regis as the focal point and their manager, Ron Atkinson, looking to play entertaining football, the West Brom team he graced in the late 1970s and early 80s was an exciting outfit that included Bryan Robson and, unusually for the time, two other black youngsters, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson, who, together with Regis, inspired a generation of black British players to take up the game.
West Brom finished third and fourth in the First Division during Regis’s time, a fondly remembered era that ended shortly after he left in 1984. At his next club, Coventry City, he was an integral part of an FA Cup final win in 1987 and an influential figure in the club’s rise to top-half respectability. He played five times for England between 1982 and 1987 and would probably have won more caps but for the dominance during his time of the outstanding Gary Lineker.
Regis was born in Maripasoula, French Guiana, to Robert, a fisherman turned gold miner originally from St Lucia, and his wife, Mathilde (nee Fadaire), a seamstress, whose family hailed from Guadelope. After his gold mining venture came to nought, Robert moved in 1962 to Britain Womens Rudy Gay Jersey to find work as a labourer. The family spent a year in http://www.authenticnewyorkmetsshop.com/Nolan-Ryan-Jersey St Lucia before joining him, when Cyrille was five, to settle in Stonebridge, north-west London.
Cyrille went to Cardinal Hinsley school (now Newman Catholic college) in Harlesden, where he showed talent at cricket, football and athletics. After school he worked as an electrician while playing as a semi-professional non-league footballer, first for Molesey in Surrey and then for Hayes in west London.
It was at Hayes that he was spotted by West Brom’s chief scout, the former England striker Ronnie Allen, who was so convinced of the young man’s ability that when the West Brom board voiced doubts about signing him for £5,000, he offered to Austin Czarnik Jersey put up his own money. That was enough to persuade the directors, and in May 1977, aged 19, Regis arrived at the Hawthorns.
Allen’s faith in him was repaid immediately: he scored twice on his debut in a League Cup match against Rotherham and then produced a goal of trademark brilliance on his first League outing against Thaddeus Young Womens Jersey Middlesbrough, running with the ball from the halfway line before unleashing from the edge of the penalty area. He was named PFA Young Player of the Year in 1978 and, having played for England Under 21s in the same year, was given his first international cap in 1982 against Northern Ireland, only the third black player to play for England after Viv Anderson and Cunningham.
“I http://www.authenticstlouiscardinals.com/Matt-Carpenter-Jersey had some great years at Albion but there was just a little sadness that we didn’t win anything,” he said. With 112 goals from 297 appearances there was no question that Regis contributed hugely to a happy period at West Brom, but if he had a failing it was that he was hardly as prolific as his poise and power suggested he could be. In contrast to Lineker, he was much less of a sniffer of close-range goals, and Atkinson only half-jokingly chided him for his inability to score scruffily inside the six-yard area. “Every one of his goals would win goal of the month,” he said ruefully.

West Ham finally saw off Shrewsbury in added time of their FA Cup third round replay but it took a thumping volley from a rookie centre-half to do so.
Reece Burke http://www.officialmarlinstore.com/Edinson_Volquez_Jersey scored his first goal for the club with seven minutes remaining of the added half-hour at a chilly London Stadium. He smashed home Marko Arnautovic’s cutback off the underside of the bar, just when the match looked like heading to penalties without a single goal in either tie.
After nearly three and a half hours of goalless endeavour there was little to tell between the sides from the Premier League and League One and Paul Hurst can take great pride in the performance of his charges. David Brad Hand Jersey Moyes, meanwhile, can count on a place in the next round but will reflect on the fact that few of his Hammers irregulars, drafted into the side for these matches, http://www.authenticpredatorstore.c...m/-74-juuse-saros-jersey_c-450.html look like forcing their way into his first-team plans.
“We were going to need something like that”, said Moyes of the goal. “We didn’t look James van Riemsdyk Authentic Jersey strong enough in forward areas to make a difference. Cup ties are difficult in as much as the expectation is on us to make the running and perhaps the expectation was too high. It was always going to be touch and go with the players we had out. It wasn’t that we sat players in the stand tonight because we thought we could do without them.”
It took the second-half introduction of the substitutes Arnautovic and Mark Noble to http://www.newyorkjets.us.com/WOMENS-MUHAMMAD-WILKERSON-JERSEY.html turn the tide after a first half that passed almost entirely without incident. Both http://www.officialsaintsfootballsh...p.com/YOUTH+TREY+HENDRICKSON+JERSEY players added a bit more zip to the play alongside willing but less dependable team-mates. One such was the young Spanish forward Toni Martínez, a regular scorer at under-23 level and given his first start for the club. While his running was unflagging, he froze at most of the opportunities presented to him and scuffed West Ham’s best opportunity in regular play wide with eight minutes to go after being teed up by Arnautovic.
Shrewsbury, just as at New Meadow nine days previously, were assiduous in their work and smart about it. West Ham’s play may have been sloppy in the final ball but often it was made to look that way by the anticipation of their opponents. In attack the Shrews gave as good as they got in extra-time and, while more cautious in the initial 90 minutes, had the best opportunity in the game when Stefan Payne went one-on-one with Joe Hart.
After Reece Oxford’s sloppy pass had been turned over by Jon Nolan, the pacy Payne scampered clear into acres of room. He bore down on the England goalkeeper, placed his shot between his legs, only for Hart to get a clip on the ball with his heel and it ran to safety.
“When playing in really big games you’ve got to take the opportunities that come to you,” Miguel Cabrera Jersey said Hurst afterwards. “It’s a quiet dressing room in there. I’m disappointed to concede a goal like that, it would have been much easier had Lanzini curled one in from 25 yards. Yes, we can be proud of what we did, but we’re in an industry where you win or you lose and tonight we’ve lost.”
Hurst will now return his attention to a promotion challenge in League One, hopeful of keeping his squad together despite the attention his players’ performances have gained in this competition. “I didn’t think any of our players were that good, and they want to stay at Shrewsbury,” he joked.
As for Moyes, he was forced to fend off questions about Andy Carroll, with the striker reportedly the subject of a £20m bid from Chelsea. “I want to add to the squad, not Brett Favre Jersey lose players from it”, the West Ham manager said. “No one’s made contact with me, and if they’ve made contact with someone else they haven’t told me.”

There were many replies under the tweet announcing Paul Lambert’s arrival as Stoke City manager. Quite a few contained the cry-laughing emoji, more than one offered season tickets for sale at a knockdown price and a single definitive statement declared “that literally might be the worst managerial appointment I’ve ever seen”. There were other examples, but you get the general gist.
Social media being what it is, the Stoke hierarchy are unlikely to have to turned to Twitter expecting bouquets and acclaim. But Lambert’s appointment as successor to Mark Hughes http://www.vancouvercanucksofficial...line.com/Adidas-Daniel-Sedin-Jersey has certainly not been met with universal praise. This is not least because the Scot was at best fourth in the club’s list of preferred candidates, Stoke having been previously unsuccessful in approaches to Gary Rowett, Martin O’Neill and Quique Sánchez Flores.
Also in the debit column for the Glaswegian is a win record of 26.6% as a Premier League manager, the discord his style of play created among supporters during the latter stages of his tenure at Aston Villa and, perhaps a degree less importantly, the perception that he is dour in his post-match press conferences. That he “greatly impressed” the Stoke board during http://www.lionsnflofficialprostore.com/YOUTH+TRAVIS+SWANSON+JERSEY the interview process, meanwhile, does not appear to have cut much ice.
January, it seems, is as difficult a time to recruit managers as it is players. But not everything about the Lambert appointment – with the 48-year-old signing a two-and-a-half year contract – rings alarm bells. The former Scotland, Celtic and Borussia Dortmund midfielder has never Authentic Nazair Jones Jersey been relegated from the Premier League after all. That win percentage may be underwhelming but it was achieved over four seasons with clubs in straitened circumstances.
Lambert was last in the top flight with Villa, Gary Roberts Jersey sacked halfway through his third season with the club in dire form. He had, however, suffered the misfortune to take Allen Crabbe Jersey the hotseat at a big club after the party had come to a stop. Randy Lerner’s largesse while Martin O’Neill was in charge had ended. The stars of that side – from Ashley Young to James Milner to Stewart Downing – had departed and replacements were drawn from the lower divisions and less celebrated foreign leagues. Lambert’s recruitment was undoubtedly patchy – for every Christian Benteke there was a Libor Kozak (or maybe two) – but risk is higher when transfer budgets are smaller.
What ended up as attritional hoofball at Villa did not begin that way. During Lambert’s first season in Birmingham the attacking trio of Christian Benteke, Andreas Weimann and Gabby Agbonlahor often thrilled. Come January of his second term Villa had cracked the top 10, only to fall away to a final 15th.
That January of 2014 was a source of frustration for Lambert having failed to complete the signing of his former charge Wes Hoolahan from Norwich City. The Irishman had been a revelation during Lambert’s time at Carrow Road, the undoubted highpoint of his managerial career to date. Hoolahan, alongside long-time lower league journeyman Grant Holt, had been the stars as Norwich won back-to-back promotions to reach the top flight. They did so with a style of aggressive, buccaneering play very different from that later adopted at Villa. For a time Lambert was the coming man of management and while Villa fans may not remember him fondly, he remains a legend in certain parts of East Anglia.
Lambert has managed five other clubs and only one spell was a failure. He left his first job at Livingston after winning only two matches but then took Wycombe Wanderers to the semi-finals of the League Cup. He needed less than a year to make Colchester League One promotion candidates before he was then poached by Norwich. More recently he kept a distressed Blackburn Rovers in the Championship and steadied a rocky Wolves in the same division, knocking Liverpool out of the FA Cup in the process. He departed Molineux in the summer after the club’s new owners opted to embrace fully the Jorge Mendes method.
In other words Lambert’s track record is not as bad as the response to his appointment at Stoke might suggest. He is also a manager with something to prove and someone used to having to get the best out of the resources at his disposal. Scepticism, even a spot of mockery, has been a common response to the appointment of experienced British managers in struggling Premier League jobs this season. David Moyes and Roy Hodgson got that treatment, yet their respective clubs are currently stationed in mid-table. It is not beyond possibility that Lambert might do the same for Stoke City.

The anarchy into which this tie descended through extra-time actually Authentic Micah Hyde Jersey made Chelsea’s eventual progress feel almost incidental. Antonio Conte had cause to celebrate Willy Caballero’s fine save and a perfect quintet of penalties in the shootout, but he was still a man on the edge long after the final whistle. http://www.authenticbluesstore.com/-9-shayne-corson-jersey_c-470.html So much of this had been the stuff of nightmares.
He could curse Derek Watt Authentic Jersey Norwich City’s hugely merited equaliser deep into stoppage time at the end of the 90 minutes, a flicked header from Jamal Lewis which thrust the hosts into an extra period they must have dreaded given their cluttered schedule. http://www.authenticwarriorstore.com/Zaza_Pachulia_Jersey But then there were the trio of home players booked for diving, and the dismissals for Pedro and Álvaro Morata – two of those who Frank Robinson Womens Jersey had gone to ground – for second bookable offences in http://www.authenticcanucksstore.com/dan-hamhuis-jersey_c-429.html the last three minutes. The second red card prompted one irate home supporter to encroach on the penalty area to berate the referee, Graham Scott.
By then, heckles had been raised with no one inside the stadium clear when the official was referring decisions to the video assistant referee, Mike Jones. Willian’s caution, despite appearing to have been clipped by Timm Klose in the penalty box at the start of extra time, had apparently not been reviewed by Scott, presumably as Jones did not deem it to have been a clear and obvious mistake.
Conte, infuriated on the touchline, frantically shouted “VAR” while gesticulating for its use at a helpless fourth official. He was still simmering as Eden Hazard stroked home the hosts’ fifth penalty to quell Norwich’s challenge once and for all.
The wounds inflicted here will pursue them to Brighton on Saturday lunchtime. Pedro, booked for a dive and then a foul on Wes Hoolahan, and Morata will be missing at the Amex Stadium, the latter having first been cautioned for tumbling away from Christoph Zimmermann and then shown a second yellow for protesting the referee’s decision. That will presumably offer Michy Batshuayi, a player Chelsea would be willing to loan to Sevilla if a replacement could be purchased, another opportunity on the south coast, with the Belgian having at least emerged from a disjointed first-half display to pilfer his side’s lead from Kenedy’s low centre.
Morata had replaced him nine minutes from time and might have scored to settle the tie, steering a header wide of the far post, but Norwich had carried a threat on the counter throughout and eventually plucked reward. Nelson Oliveira and Josh Murphy had already struck the woodwork when, just as their opportunity appeared to have gone, with Chelsea seeking to close down the contest, they rallied four minutes into added time. Klose’s centre was optimistic but Lewis, a 19-year-old graduate of Norwich’s youth system, infiltrated space between centre-halves to head in the equaliser off the far post.
Thereafter, Angus Gunn kept the hosts at bay as Conte flung Hazard and the cavalry into the fray in the hope Premier League quality might tell. The Manchester City loanee’s brilliance in extra-time, denying Willian and Morata twice from close range, took the breath away. He had been just as acrobatic in tipping Danny Drinkwater’s earlier effort on to the crossbar at full stretch. The England under-21 international goalkeeper’s only frustration was his inability to muster a save in the shoot-out though, in truth, that could not be counted against him. Caballero, denying Oliveira, pulled off the decisive intervention.
For a team who have seen five experienced players depart Carrow Road since the original tie, this was still an admirable display from the Championship side even if that might have been lost amid the controversy. Klose might even have plundered the latest of winners with a free header in what time remained after Morata’s dismissal. “There are players in our dressing room with tears in their eyes,” said Daniel Farke, Norwich’s manager. “We were so close to creating a really big, big sensation.” Newcastle will hope to go one better when they visit in the fourth round. cheap jerseys free shippingcheap jerseys for salecheap jerseys onlinecheap jerseys from chinabasketball jerseys customnhl jerseys wholesale

What an amusing inevitability to learn that Phil Neville is the frontrunner for the job of managing the England women’s side. I very much enjoyed my colleague Louise Taylor’s report into the matter, which stated: “It is understood the 40-year-old’s name was initially suggested to the Football Association in a lighthearted manner by a well-known broadcaster at a drinks reception last month.”
This is my favourite How Job Applications Work story since George Osborne’s friends asked the former chancellor for his advice on their pitches for the Evening Standard editorship. Sorry, guys – he had a look at your proposals, but in the end the opportunity was just too good to pass up. A failed candidate for the Times’s graduate trainee scheme back in the day, he proceeded straight to newspaper editor.
Indeed, the latter tale was my favourite How Job Applications Work story since George’s pal Michael Gove decided to knife their other pal Boris Johnson during the post-referendum Tory leadership contest, justifying it thus: “I compare it to a group of people standing outside a collapsing building, wondering who is going to rescue a child inside. I thought: well, I don’t think I’ve got either the strength or the speed for this, but as I looked around, I thought, God, I’m at least as strong and at least as fast as the others. I’ve got to try to save the child.” To which the response turned out to be: police have arrested a 49-year-old west London man on suspicion of blowing up a building he later claimed to be rescuing a child from.
Anyway, back to the Neville appointment, reportedly almost a done deal. I suppose it’s one form of positive discrimination – the FA has refused to let Neville Doug McDermott Jersey be held back by the fact he has never managed a football team, or by Authentic Albert Pujols Jersey the fact he didn’t apply for the job.
Even so, plenty of people are wondering quite why he seems the best option for an http://www.authenticsandiegopadresshop.com/Dave-Winfield-Jersey FA supposedly committed to being less brutally self-parodic in 2018. In December, Baroness Sue Campbell – the head of women’s football – was acknowledging a problem with the lack of female applicants for the position: “It’s not about neglect,” she judged, “it’s more that we haven’t proactively gone out and tried to address the big issues. Now we are doing this.”
Alas, it looks like they haven’t quite done it in time not to have to parachute in a man who hasn’t managed before. Still, you have to admire the FA’s belief that the poor optics are worth it, so very soon after its handling of the Eni Aluko and Mark Sampson cases, which secured it that calamitous select committee appearance in October.
Anyone who cares about England football will wish Neville every success but let’s hope the FA devotes serious time to analysing why it has reportedly been rejected by the more qualified candidates it shortlisted. Fear of scrutiny is believed to be the main reason but should not have been insurmountable. If it has turned out to be, as seems the case, then that is a failing on the FA’s part. This is a great job. England are ranked No 1 in Europe and No 3 in the world, and after reaching both the last World Cup and Euro semi-finals will be regarded as having a good chance of winning the World Cup next year.
Furthermore, Sampson’s salary was said to fall between £100,000 and £150,000 a year, which – while a fraction of that paid to a series of underachieving coaches of the men’s side – isn’t too bad for a part-time job. I am sure Neville can see the opportunities of the position (just as I am sure he won’t be on a mere £150,000).
Perhaps the most controversial thing about the process of appointing the England manager, though, is that it is being managed by indestructible FA technical director Dan Ashworth. Inevitably, it is Ashworth who is said to have personally approached Neville.
Can it really be less than three months ago that people were describing Ashworth’s position as untenable, with Dame Heather Rabbatts rightly predicting nothing would change if he http://www.officialpanthersfootball...ntic.com/Nike-Jj-Jansen-Jersey.html stayed in charge? And here we are. To imagine Ashworth’s position as untenable was always to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of British public life. Whole strata of it are full of chaps who have risen without trace and are seemingly unsinkable. They were being satirised by Anthony Powell in the character of Kenneth Widmerpool in 1951, being a recognisable character type even then. cheap nfl jerseys usacheap nfl jerseys from chinanhl jerseys cheapwholesale jerseys nfl

In the end the writing on the wall was spelled out boldly enough for Theo Walcott to recognise the comfort zone was not really that comfortable at all. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the departure of a forward who spent more than a decade at Arsenal, mostly in this strange space where he grew older and signed new contracts while being judged about how far he was – or ever could reach – Logan Brown Jersey on the potential fulfilment scale, is that he uprooted at all. Walcott has in some ways been a perfect symbol of the later Wenger years: flashes of undeniable talent mixed with unreliability, a sense of sticking with the same old familiar tune rather than finding a way to fire up the rhythm.
Walcott always looked like the last person who would want out of Arsenal. It was a good life for him and his family and, as a decent and polite sort, he tended to prefer to play safe rather than agitate. The message this season, however, encouraged him to make a break for it and seek a new challenge. He could not get more than 63 minutes of Premier League football during a period where the team have struggled. Last weekend at Bournemouth, with no Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil or Olivier Giroud, the manager picked Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi to support Alexandre Lacazette in attack. Last season Welbeck and Iwobi scored four goals each. Walcott delivered 19. They were trusted to start and he was not. There was not much comfort to be found on that bench.
The market for established, late-20s attackers is the dominant theme of this January transfer window and Walcott’s value to Everton at £20m is interesting. He will turn 29 in a couple of months. He is three months younger than Sánchez and three months older than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Walcott moves at an age where generally players are supposed to be at their peak, fully formed and ready to go. But the intrigue is in whether new surroundings, new expectations and a http://www.authenticslightningstore...om/jason-garrison-jersey_c-448.html very different type of voice giving instructions and http://www.losangelesramsauthorized...ore.com/nolan-cromwell-jersey-elite motivation can inspire something extra, propelling the same old Theo to become new Theo even at a relatively late stage of his career.
The fulfilment of potential will always be the subtext in the Walcott story, the underlying question. That notion was amplified way back, when Sven-Göran Eriksson had a chat with Arsène Wenger and, perhaps influenced by the reputation the Arsenal manager had during that era for identifying and developing outstanding young talent, suddenly selected this untried kid to join the 2006 World Cup ride. Womens Jersey That expectation became a thing, enhanced when Walcott took Thierry Henry’s No 14, a gargantuan shirt to fill for a youngster with pace who spent time being educated on the wing before the anticipated push into the centre-forward position.
It remains weirdly difficult to assess Walcott’s 12 years at Arsenal because of this lingering dilemma between judging what he did well against what might have been better. On the shiny side of the coin he won three FA Cups – a sharp, instinctive finish to open the scoring in the 2015 final at Wembley was one of those high points Jaromir Jagr Authentic Jersey which reignited the idea that a more driven, influential Walcott was ready to break out. He scored more than 100 goals for one of England’s historic clubs. He gathered 47 England caps.
Everton can look at the highlights reel and wonder if more of the plus points can be harnessed. A breathtaking run to assist a goal for Emmanuel Adebayor in a Champions League game at Anfield still looks thrilling. Then – gulp – you realise that was actually nearly 10 years ago.
Those wonder-moments were like trailers, giving a flavour, a sense of possibility, but it was the difficulty in translating it into a compelling long movie http://www.officialusahockeystore.c...Usa_Blake_Wheeler_Jersey_Shirt.html that explains how his Arsenal years will be remembered with a mix of fondness and frustration. Walcott arrived at the club when Wenger had such impressive form for progressing young talent. Joining Arsenal then seemed a natural fit for a young player who wanted to learn and improve. Recent distinguished examples included Cesc Fàbregas, Robin van Persie, Gaël Clichy and Kolo Touré.
Walcott in some ways became emblematic of the group that did not flourish as much as everybody hoped. The current team has a bunch who are treading developmental water, maybe even swimming against the tide, http://www.officialshopraidersonlin...com/Deandre_Washington_Jersey_Cheap in that players such as Héctor Alec Burks Jersey Bellerín, Rob Holding and Iwobi look less assured than they did when they broke into the first team. wholesale jerseys cheapwholesale jerseys cheapwholesale jerseys from chinacheap mlb jerseyswholesale jerseys cheapbaseball jerseys wholesalewholesale jerseys paypalwholesale nhl jerseys